Editor’s note: Hello! Over the next few days we’re running a “Games That Got Away” series, where we finally get round to reviewing games that released at some point in 2021 but, for various reasons, we couldn’t quite manage to cover at the time.
We’ve gone back to a few real gems, so for more catch-up reviews like this one head to the Games That Got Away hub, where all our pieces from the series will be rounded up in one convenient place. Enjoy!
Great first game; classic sequel; much-maligned third entry that takes an admirable but clearly doomed stab at something different; hiatus; and finally, a triumphant, boots-on-the-ground return to the classic formula. We’ve been here before! Forgive me for a truly agonising cliché with this one, but it does feel like history is repeating itself with Age of Empires 4.
Age of Empires 4 review
- Developer: Relic, World’s Edge
- Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
- Platform: Played on PC
- Availability: Out now on PC (and PC Game Pass)
Thankfully, that history is really quite good. Age of Empires is the game of the before times, after all, the pinnacle of pre-Y2K. The first came out in 1997, the second in 1999. The time of beige PCs, dial-up connections and the early internet’s fabled golden age. This is the era right now. The pendulum has swung to crop tops, cargo pants, curtain haircuts and, apparently, historical real-time strategy games about little men in castles. Savour this one, because as quick as life giveth it can taketh away: the classic RTS is hot.
And AoE 4 feels about as classic as classic RTS games get. It’s stripped back, simple (on the surface) but in a way that feels streamlined, light on its feet, as opposed to lightweight. There’s a clarity to it’s ever-so-slightly stylised visuals, and a famously basic core, the formula that worked so well with the earlier games of the series – and little more. Four campaigns, some premade and custom skirmishes, perfectly functional online multiplayer (that’s admittedly still waiting for its ranked mode), and a handful of tutorials. It needs nothing else.